Political Careers or Career Politicians?

Two main career paths are prevalent among politicians in modern democracies: there are career politicians (i.e., politicians who work in the political sector until retirement), and political careers (i.e., there are politicians who leave politics before retirement and work in the private sector). In this paper, we propose a dynamic equilibrium model of the careers of politicians in a political economy with a private sector and a political sector, where individuals are heterogeneous with respect to their market ability and political skills. We characterize the conditions under which the two career paths emerge in equilibrium, and investigate the effects of monetary incentives and other features of the political-economic environment on the quality of politicians and their careers. Our analysis also provides a rationale for the existence and the survival of political parties.

Keywords: politicians, parties, careers in politics

JEL Classification: D72, J44, J45

Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation

Mattozzi, Andrea and Merlo, Antonio M., Political Careers or Career Politicians? (December 2005). PIER Working Paper No. 05-032, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=870305 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.870305

Andrea Mattozzi

University of Bologna - Department of Economics ( email )

Bologna
Italy

Antonio M. Merlo (Contact Author)

University of Pennsylvania - Department of Economics ( email )

Ronald O. Perelman Center for Political Science
133 South 36th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6297
United States
215-898-7933 (Phone)
215-573-2057 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: http://www.ssc.upenn.edu/~merloa